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ASA notices and news

The establishment of a new British Summer Championship for 2015 was announced in October as the first headline component of a broader British Swimming Performance Pathway Strategy.

Qualification to this event and to the associated English, Scottish and Welsh end of season competitions will be via invitation based long course rankings produced following a specific qualification period. For 2015 the qualifying period is defined as follows:

All appropriately licensed/accredited long course competitions in the period 13 March to 31 May 2015 (inclusive);Results from the following specific events will also be included in the qualification rankings:

ASA North West Regional Championships (6 - 7 June 2015)

ASA North East Regional Championships (6 - 7 and 13 - 14 June 2015)

ASA Midlands Championships (6 - 7 June 2015)

ASA East Regional Championships (6 - 7 and 13 - 14 June 2015)

It is anticipated that qualification lists will be published on 10 June, with any additional qualifiers from the above 13 - 14 June events to be published on 17 June.

It is expected that all ASA Regional long course Championships will fall within the main qualification period from 2016 onwards.

The new competition structure has been designed to expose an even greater number of young, talented swimmers to national competition whilst at the same time providing a firm foundation to ensure Britain sees more of its exciting junior talent transition to becoming successful senior athletes.

The 2015 British Summer Championships will be held 28 July – 2 August, in Sheffield.

The ASA has released details of a new swimming competition structure that will allow a greater number of swimmers the opportunity to compete at a national level.

Developed as part of a broader British Swimming Performance Pathway Strategy, the new structure includes an ASA Summer Nationals (50m) and a new ASA Short Course Winter Nationals (25m).

The aim of the changes is to provide greater opportunities for swimmers to experience national competitions, and to create an aligned competition calendar across England, Scotland and Wales to help coaches support developing athletes within a defined period of training and competition phases.

A further addition to the competition structure will be an end of season British Summer Championships, scheduled to take place from 28 July – 2 August. This will provide up to 24 top ranked swimmers in each age group and event the opportunity to compete at the highest level.

Those that finish outside of the top ranked places will have the opportunity to compete at the ASA Summer Nationals scheduled from 4-9 August.

All Championship Meets will also adopt the use of age at 31st December to realign with LEN/FINA.

Seen as one of the most important changes to English swimming for over a decade, the new competition structure has been endorsed by British Swimming and all of the home nations.

Chair of the ASA Sport Governing Board, Chris Bostock, said: “The new competition structure offers more swimmers the opportunity to experience National competitions and gives coaches a more structured calendar around which to plan their programmes. Both of these are important in helping talented young swimmers to develop and we look forward to introducing our new competitions in the new year.”

The changes come into effect from 2015 and follow a period of consultation with Clubs and Coaches across the home nations, as well as wider discussions within the swimming community.

British Swimming are proposing changes to the format of domestic competitions. The full consultation document relating to the proposed changes to the swimming competition calendar is available for download / viewing here.

Feedback is being sought and the email address for this to be submitted can be found at the foot of the document.